America is saying "so long" to its old greenback $10 bill and "howdy" to the note of many colours. The new, harder-to-counterfeit bill in reds, yellows, oranges and greens entered US circulation on Thursday. The $10 makeover follows similar colourisation of the $20 bill in 2003 and the $50 note in 2004. The $100 bill one of the most popular with counterfeiters - is due to be redesigned in 2007, but there are no plans to change the $1, $2 or $5 notes. The US government gives its currency a new look every seven to 10 years in a bid to stay ahead of counterfeiters. Current estimates put the rate of counterfeit $10 notes in circulation worldwide at fewer than one bill per 10,000. But digital equipment has made it easier for criminals to produce fake currency. Since 1995, the proportion of digitally-produced counterfeit notes in circulation has grown from 1% of all fake bills detected in the US to about 54% in 2004. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Three German ciphers unsolved since World War II are finally being cracked, helped by thousands of home computers. The codes resisted the best efforts of the celebrated Allied cryptographers based at Bletchley Park during the war. Now one has been solved by running code-breaking software on a "grid" of internet-linked home computers. The complex ciphers were encoded in 1942 by a new version of the German Enigma machine, and led to regular hits on Allied vessels by German U-boats. Allied experts initially failed to deal with the German adoption in 1942 of a complex new cipher system, brought in at the same time as a newly upgraded Enigma machine. The advancement in German encryption techniques led to significant Allied losses in the North Atlantic throughout 1942....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4763854.stm

Masked, plainclothes police carrying assault rifles staged a midnight raid on the country's oldest newspaper and its sister television station early Thursday, burning tens of thousands of newspapers in the most dramatic attack on the press in Kenya's history.The closures of The Standard and the Kenya Television Network marked the first time a Kenyan government has shut down a major media company and followed the detentions of several journalists.The Kenyan media have reported aggressively on corruption scandals swirling around President Mwai Kibaki, seen as increasingly politically isolated."If you rattle a snake you must be prepared to be bitten by it," Interior Security Minister John Michuki told journalists. Speaking in Swahili, he said the police raid was necessary to demonstrate state authority.A police statement issued later called the case "a national security matter."...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/02/kenya.press.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world

The bombing and bloodshed that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war have propelled anti-American firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr to the forefront of Iraqi politics. The young Shi'ite cleric, who twice defied the United States in 2004, has emerged as a major threat to U.S. plans for Iraq. Sheik al-Sadr already had managed to carve out a strong position in Iraqi politics. His followers won 30 of the 275 parliament seats in the December elections, and his support enabled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to win the nomination of the Shi'ite bloc for a second term as prime minister. But the outbreak of Shi'ite-Sunni violence presented Sheik al-Sadr with an opportunity to exploit. Through skillful use of intimidation and then concessions, Sheik al-Sadr, 31, has profited more than any other Iraqi figure from the unrest that swept the country after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine, which triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics. ...http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060301-113324-5685r.htm

Congolese army soldiers fighting alongside U.N. peacekeepers against ethnic militiamen have mutinied, ransacking a U.N. camp in the east and firing on a U.N. helicopter carrying a top commander, U.N. officials said.The mutiny began on Wednesday and forced the suspension of a joint U.N. and Congo army operation to retake the eastern town of Tchei in Ituri district from an ethnic militia, said Lieutenant-Colonel Frederic Medard, U.N. military spokesman in the capital, Kinshasa."About 50 soldiers have mutinied. Yesterday, they refused to fight and returned to their base in Aveba where they threatened their superiors," he said....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/02/congo.un.reut/index.html?section=cnn_world

Acupuncture - real or sham - is as good as medication for preventing migraine, a study has suggested. German researchers treated almost 900 patients with either standard drugs, traditional Chinese acupuncture or "fake" acupuncture. Virtually the same proportion of people in each group found the number of days affected by migraine was halved. The UK's Migraine Association said the Lancet Neurology study showed there was no "one-size-fits-all" treatment. Migraine affects up to 15% of the UK population - around two thirds of sufferers are women. An attack can last up to 72 hours, and sufferers experience an average of 13 attacks a year. The results come from acupuncture trials in Germany, where the treatment is commonly used to treat migraine. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4764354.stm